verb
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to pronounce or articulate (continuous connected speech) with a characteristic rise and fall of the voice
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a less common word for intone
Etymology
Origin of intonate
1785–95; < Medieval Latin intonātus, past participle of intonāre to intone. See -ate 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Solomon said in a singsong, the way people intonate when they are not quite convinced of what they are saying.
From New York Times
The most successful sequences are the ones that find new ways of illustrating the meaning of a poem besides lingering on the face of the performer uttering purposefully syncopated and painstakingly intonated lines.
From New York Times
The people never wearied of singing them, and in very many places the Gospel was introduced by the triumphant power of the Lutheran hymns intonated by pious church members.
From Project Gutenberg
They have this way they intonate their words.
From The Guardian
Those who didn't faint contributed variously intonated screams to the general unrest.
From Project Gutenberg
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
